The Genius and the Apple
by Dracone
Summary: Here is a story we all know. One day a certain genius saw a certain object fall. This gave him an idea that would change the world. At least that is the story he tells, the story people think they know. In reality this isn't quite the whole truth...


Disclaimer; I do not own Death Note or its characters, I merely borrow them for a time. I hope to return them with at least some of the packaging... if I can remember how they fit in the box.

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A/N; May I advertise the works of my wonderful friend Dotti55, she has recently begun writing and her stories are well worth the read. I hope that you will take some time to go and read them.

This story came to me rather suddenly when watching a science documentary. I hope you enjoy!

Please read and review!

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The Genius and the Apple

Here is the story we all know. One day a certain genius went out and saw a certain object fall. This gave him an idea that would change the world, and broaden people's horizons forever. At least this is the story he tells people, the story people _think_ they all know. In reality this isn't quite the whole truth...

The apple did fall, but it wasn't all it did.

Oh wait, you didn't think I was talking about another genius did you?

...

Hiding his annoyance at his family he slouched through the kitchen and out into the orchard beyond. He hated coming home, they always talked about him becoming a farmer and controlling the family estates. He had only returned from Cambridge because of the plague, he was far safer here than he ever would have been there. Of course his mother didn't seem to understand that he wanted to stay at university and study, physics and alchemy of course was far more interesting than sorting out rents and governing which crop went where year in year out. She still couldn't see how it would help run the estate. He didn't see why he would have to put up with either his mother or his horrendous step-father, he knew he would never get over the engagement they had encouraged him to enter into. He was merely relieved that he had been able to escape it. He wondered what it said about someone that your headmaster was a better friend to him than even his own mother.

With a sigh he sat down in the cooling shade of a nearby apple tree. The orchard was his favourite place of all. No one ever followed him out here and he was allowed to stay out here as long as he wanted, not that they could truly have stopped him now he was an adult. He looked up into the branches of the tree at the green leaves and red apples that stood out amongst them. The apples of the orchard were lovely, and absently he reached out with one hand to pick up one of the red fruits on the ground by his leg.

Polishing it off against his tan coloured jacket he bit into it and smiled at its juiciness. It was perfect. Finally feeling the first bout of true happiness of the day he sat there and let his mind relax at last. He didn't know how many hours past and truthfully he didn't care, it wasn't often he got chances to just sit and think over anything he wanted, not since returning home.

Vaguely the most modern theories of physics and science flitted through his mind and he marvelled at how man was making sense of the world around them and yet there was still so much to understand; advances by Galileo and Kepler in astronomy fascinated him. It was one of the reasons he loved being at university, surrounded by so many people who thought like him, and it gave him so much time to study alchemy and the optics of light.

As night felt he wondered if he should make a return back inside to his family, it would be getting close to the time for the main meal and they would start to look for him. At least the servants would anyway. He sighed, placing his most recent finished apple on the pile of finished cores underneath the tree, all had been ones that had been on the ground scattered around him where they had fallen. His gaze landed on a nearby tree and he frowned wondering just how an apple would go from the tree to the ground. Why didn't it go up? Why did the apple not just stay in place?

It was then it happened. At this moment an apple from the very tree he was looking at decided at that moment to begin its journey to the ground and it fell with barely a sound to land on the ground below.

The genius stared at it for a moment and then back up at the tree, and finally an idea dawned on him and he smiled. It had to have been pulled there he reasoned, a force off some kind had to pull it down to the ground when it broke from the tree. He glanced up at the moon and frowned, any force had to extend up to it and had to affect it but perhaps that was why it was still there in the first place. It made so much sense and suddenly seemed so simple, at least to understand he still couldn't think how it could be mathematically defined, he wondered why no one had ever thought of it before.

Then the apple rose from the ground and hovered there a good few feet above the grass. He stared at it in utter shock. Such events had to be impossible he knew. He blinked and rubbed at his eyes and when he looked back the apple had completely vanished.

"What?" he whispered allowed unable to believe his eyes. He wondered if he had sat out in the sun too long and it had affected his mind. His thoughts ceased though as another apple rose up from the ground and hung there for a moment before vanishing in two quick bites. If he hadn't been of a more rational mind he would have said it had been eaten. Yet how could anything have been eaten by the air? He also wondered why anything would _want_ to eat those apples, they were cooking apples.

Cautiously he rose to his feet and he debated whether to run back to the house or attempt to investigate this further. It was just so strange. He was unsurprised to see another apple begin its journey upwards from the ground. He knew his recent thoughts about a whole new force existing were not being broken by this, this had to be some strange supernatural force working outside the boundaries of the rational world. As he stared at the apple all fear faded and he found himself just trying to think about it logically, attempting to reason just what would be doing something so strange.

Then the apple began some strange dance in the air before him and all his confusion returned. It was almost as though he was being mocked or taunted by an _apple_. It was just too much.

"Who is that does this?" Newton called, sounding far more assured than he felt and not a little foolish at calling out to apparently empty air, "Who is there?"

...

Ryuk stared at the human before him unable to hold back a small laugh of amusement. He had snuck down to the Earth many times in his long life for his precious apples but only now had any human that had seen his antics sought to work out what was there. Normally they screamed and ran in terror; it had always been quite entertaining really. Now here was one actually challenging him. Humans really were quite fun.

He really did laugh then before consuming the apple in a few quick bites, smiling at the taste. So much better than the ones from the Shinigami realm, no matter how many seeds he tried to plant. Nothing grew, but then nothing could with no rain in the shinigami realm.

He stared down at the strange human again, wondering what to do. He knew he would have to find _someone's_ name to write in order to get away with his little trip down here, and perhaps this person would do. Though he had to give them credit for only looking a little scared... He reluctantly realised that he wouldn't kill Isaac Newton, he was too interesting. He only ever looked for boring people, it was his way of filtering out so many names.

"I know someone's there," Isaac said again and Ryuk grinned. Perhaps he should show him who was here. It might be even more fun than seeing people run away from floating apples. With that he whipped his death note from where it usually sat and gliding forward a little tapped the man on the head with it. He gave a small laugh as he finally got his scream, not a very loud one but it was still a scream. Alright he conceded it was more of a loud squeak.

"I like the apples here," Ryuk commented, grinning down as Isaac stared up at him with wide eyes.

"But-but," Isaac began, and to Ryuk's surprise shook himself slightly and regained his composure, "they're only cooking apples."

"Huh," Ryuk uttered, completely bewildered. Of all the replied he had expected that hadn't been it. Humans truly were able to be interesting some times.

...

"If you wanted eating apples you wanted that tree over there," Newton explained, pointing back over at the tree he had been sat under. Knowing that his theories hadn't been proven drastically wrong was much more comforting than the possibility he was looking at a demon. Demons were not part of the running order of the world; in some way he felt that they couldn't harm him at all. At least this one couldn't, and if it had wanted to he thought it would have done it already. He watched as the creature went over and ate one of the fallen apples, with sounds of great enjoyment he found, and then ate several more in quick succession each one faster than the rest.

"So, what are you? _Who_ are you?" Newton asked, his natural curiosity overcoming his emotions, he rarely paid attention to his emotions anyway. Not when they weren't directed at his family or his rivals.

"In your language Isaac Newton," the creature explained taking great delight in showing the man that he knew his name, only pausing occasionally to eat another of these apples he was apparently enthralled with, "I'm a god of death and my name's Ryuk."

"A god of death?" Newton couldn't help asking, he needed explanations. How the creature knew his name could come later.

"Oh, not that sort of god," Ryuk laughed, "Though you should have seen the look on your face at the thought of me being a God. These apples are really good."

Newton couldn't block the startled look from appearing on his and he knew he had failed when Ryuk's strange laughter filled the orchard.

"I should think so," Newton murmured, feeling the sudden need to defend his family's orchard, "they're the tastiest and juicy ones we grow here."

"Juicy?" Ryuk repeated, then he looked down at his most recent half eaten apple and grinned, it seemed he liked the word as he repeated it again. Despite himself Newton found he had to force back a laugh, the creature before him was just so silly, he couldn't be a threat. He was just a strange creature with a love of apples, and with so much unknown about the world why couldn't there be creatures like him?

"Why apples?" Newton asked.

"Where I come from apples are awful, besides I was bored," Ryuk said sounding completely unconcerned as he turned towards the tree and stole another of the juicy apples from it. "Juicy apples."

Newton wondered if he had just taught Ryuk a new word.

"Where you come from?"

"You ask so many questions!" Ryuk explained, then threw a wizened looking apple at Newton, "If you're so interested try one."

Hesitantly Newton took a bite and Ryuk nearly turned upside down at the sudden look of horror that appeared on the man's face.

...

In the future Newton would always speak of the day he saw the apple fall from the tree and how it led to the defining of gravity and the laws of motion that would become his greatest work, but he never spoke of the other odd events of the day. Or that he let his strange visitor come back and eat his apples whenever he wished. He never did explain when he was knighted why his coat of arms was two crossed bones on a black background either, but then explaining it was because of a strange creature called Ryuk that had eaten all of your apples would never have gone down well.

...

Long into the future Ryuk stared at the brilliant red apples in the bowl before him and remembered that day long ago in that orchard with the only other man who hadn't truly been scared by his sudden appearance. The man he had ended up talking to for hours about as much of the shinigami realm as he could get away with, he was sure that day had made him long for more entertainment and interest in his life than the other shinigami. Perhaps this human too could entertain him, and it looked like he had at last found apples that tasted as good as the apples he had eaten in that orchard.

"These apples are... what would you call them, juicy?" Ryuk commented, using the word he had indeed learnt from Newton all those years ago. He wondered what Light would make of that if he ever told him.


End file.
